Pingry's SMART Team Gives Scientific Presentation
May 25, 2005

On Monday, May 9, 2005 the eight members of Pingry’s Students Modeling a Research Topic (SMART) Team proudly presented their scientific research and models to science teachers and parents in the faculty lounge at the Martinsville campus. The impressed group of attendees listened as each student spoke on a lesson learned and related that discovery to the models. It is the second year in which the tenth graders have worked together as team members in their scientific exploration. Last year, the students studied proteins and gene transcription under the guidance of Pingry science teacher Tommie Hata. This year, Deidre O’Mara, fellow science instructor who organized Pingry’s SMART Team, guided the students in their discovery of quorum sensing protein pathway – how bacteria communicate with one another – and the various proteins involved in detection, which is critical to the field of immunology and emerging drug technology. The final presentation follows weeks in which the team used their free time to work on real data provided by Dr. Fred Hughson, a Princeton University professor who also served as the students’ mentor. Mrs. O’Mara brought Dr. Hughson on board after attending one of his lectures. As part of their experience as team members, the students used state-of-the-art rapid prototyping technology and visualization software to create colorful 3D models based on Hughson’s work. The models were presented to him during the Pingry presentation. In addition to their accomplishments with Dr. Hughson, the students also created and displayed a poster of their work during the International Biochemical Molecular Biology Conference in San Diego on April 4-9. Although they were surrounded by doctorates in the field and were nearly the only high school student participants out of 15,000 people, Pingry’s SMART Team amazed those who attended and gained exposure to post-graduate level of work. The SMART Team was established by Dr. Tim Herman, who runs the Center for Biomolecular Modeling at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The project is funded by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each team consists of high school students and their teachers, who work with research scientists to design and construct physical models of proteins or other molecular structures that are being investigated in laboratories. Mrs. O’Mara organized Pingry’s team in hopes of getting students excited about the sciences. Next year the team plans to work once more with Mr. Hata to assist the scientists at Rockefeller University. Pingry’s SMART Team Members include: Issac Davis Gabe Fernando Ajay Tungare Alex Savello Annie Hanson David Jaroslovsky Max Horlbeck © 2005 The Pingry School